What do you think?
Rate this book
Should We Leave Our Churches?: A Biblical Response to Harold Camping
A concise critique of the view that the institutional church, guilty of apostasy, should disband, ceasing its clerical ministries and its administration of the sacraments.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
J. Ligon Duncan III
42 books52 followersLigon Duncan is the Senior Minister of the historic First Presbyterian Church (1837), Jackson, Mississippi, President of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Chairman of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Convener of the Twin Lakes Fellowship, and Adjunct Professor at Reformed Theological Seminary. He served as the 32nd Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America (2004-2005), the youngest minister ever to fill that post.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 7, 2024
AN EVANGELICAL CRITIQUE OF CAMPING'S "LEAVE THE CHURCHES" TEACHING
J. Ligon Duncan is senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and author of books such as 'The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century.' Mark R. Talbot is an editor of Modern Reformation magazine, and author of 'The Signs of True Conversion.'
This 2004 booklet is a critique of the books and claims of Harold Camping (b. 1921), the former President of Family Radio and former host of its "Open Forum" show (he suffered a stroke in June 2011), and author of books such as '1994?,' 'The End of the Church Age and After,' 'Wheat and Tares,' etc., who infamously predicted the end of the world in 1994 and 2011, and said that Christians should leave their churches; the failure of these predictions led to mass defections (and loss of revenue) to Family Stations.
They wrote in the Introduction, "In early 2002, religious news services began to report some strange claims by Harold Camping... Mr. Camping had begun announcing 'the end of the church age' both in writing and on his Open Forum program... Meanwhile, impeccable evangelical ministries that broadcast their own programs on Family Radio were finding the content edited without authorization and with all references to the church deleted.
"This is not the first time that Camping has landed himself in controversy. In 1992, he self-published a book arguing that 1994 would be the end of the world and mark the coming of Christ. It wasn't. Not only was Camping shown to be utterly confused in his eschatological exegetical method, but he is also the only self-described amillennialist to so publicly hazard an opinion about the precise timing of Christ's return... Although... Camping attempts to establish the truth of these claims from Scripture, he comes to this view partly from his analysis of the current church situation..." (Pg. 7-8)
They add, "Our purpose in writing is to refute claims and counsel like this... the Alliance of Confession Evangelicals ... appointed several representatives to meet with Camping and urge him to acknowledge his errors and turn back from his unbiblical course. This meeting took place in June of 2002, but unfortunately to no avail." (Pg. 9-10)
They admit, "Granted, there are disturbing signs of infidelity in the church, but no amount of such empirical evidence can outweigh God's promises to preserve his Son's bride and perfect her for his coming." (Pg. 17) They observe, "Camping... assumes that technology can replace missionaries and churches in disciple-making and that a Bible study with a superficial fellowship around a ... radio can replace mutual accountability and submission to spiritual authority in Christian sanctification..." (Pg. 20)
They point out, "Camping's allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures approaches the Bible like a mystery novel or a perplexing puzzle. This pattern of sleuth-like hermeneutics, of finding almost undetectable clues in arcane places and then using them as the key to understanding the final unfolding of all things, reveals his Gnostic tendencies." (Pg. 26)
They state, "Camping creates his own categories for characterizing the church... and thus evades having to grapple with the New Testament's detailed teaching about it. In particular, he cannot produce from the Bible even one verse that actually teaches his view that there will come a time when true or spiritually minded Christians ought to abandon their local churches and form mere fellowships of believers that have no pastors, elders, and teachers, and that exercise no discipline." (Pg. 36)
They conclude, "We urge those of you who have been influenced by Camping's unbiblical teaching to rethink your commitment to what is, in fact, a profoundly un-Christian vision of God's church. Christ has not abandoned, nor will he ever abandon, his bride. Those who encourage us to slight her will come under his judgment on the last day. Indeed, we pray for Harold Camping and plead with him to return to Scripture's true doctrine of Christ's church." (Pg. 48)
Other critiques of Camping are 'Shockwave 2000!', 'The Harold Camping 1994 Debacle' and 'Dangerous Airwaves: Harold Camping Refuted and Christ's Church Defended.'
J. Ligon Duncan is senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and author of books such as 'The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century.' Mark R. Talbot is an editor of Modern Reformation magazine, and author of 'The Signs of True Conversion.'
This 2004 booklet is a critique of the books and claims of Harold Camping (b. 1921), the former President of Family Radio and former host of its "Open Forum" show (he suffered a stroke in June 2011), and author of books such as '1994?,' 'The End of the Church Age and After,' 'Wheat and Tares,' etc., who infamously predicted the end of the world in 1994 and 2011, and said that Christians should leave their churches; the failure of these predictions led to mass defections (and loss of revenue) to Family Stations.
They wrote in the Introduction, "In early 2002, religious news services began to report some strange claims by Harold Camping... Mr. Camping had begun announcing 'the end of the church age' both in writing and on his Open Forum program... Meanwhile, impeccable evangelical ministries that broadcast their own programs on Family Radio were finding the content edited without authorization and with all references to the church deleted.
"This is not the first time that Camping has landed himself in controversy. In 1992, he self-published a book arguing that 1994 would be the end of the world and mark the coming of Christ. It wasn't. Not only was Camping shown to be utterly confused in his eschatological exegetical method, but he is also the only self-described amillennialist to so publicly hazard an opinion about the precise timing of Christ's return... Although... Camping attempts to establish the truth of these claims from Scripture, he comes to this view partly from his analysis of the current church situation..." (Pg. 7-8)
They add, "Our purpose in writing is to refute claims and counsel like this... the Alliance of Confession Evangelicals ... appointed several representatives to meet with Camping and urge him to acknowledge his errors and turn back from his unbiblical course. This meeting took place in June of 2002, but unfortunately to no avail." (Pg. 9-10)
They admit, "Granted, there are disturbing signs of infidelity in the church, but no amount of such empirical evidence can outweigh God's promises to preserve his Son's bride and perfect her for his coming." (Pg. 17) They observe, "Camping... assumes that technology can replace missionaries and churches in disciple-making and that a Bible study with a superficial fellowship around a ... radio can replace mutual accountability and submission to spiritual authority in Christian sanctification..." (Pg. 20)
They point out, "Camping's allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures approaches the Bible like a mystery novel or a perplexing puzzle. This pattern of sleuth-like hermeneutics, of finding almost undetectable clues in arcane places and then using them as the key to understanding the final unfolding of all things, reveals his Gnostic tendencies." (Pg. 26)
They state, "Camping creates his own categories for characterizing the church... and thus evades having to grapple with the New Testament's detailed teaching about it. In particular, he cannot produce from the Bible even one verse that actually teaches his view that there will come a time when true or spiritually minded Christians ought to abandon their local churches and form mere fellowships of believers that have no pastors, elders, and teachers, and that exercise no discipline." (Pg. 36)
They conclude, "We urge those of you who have been influenced by Camping's unbiblical teaching to rethink your commitment to what is, in fact, a profoundly un-Christian vision of God's church. Christ has not abandoned, nor will he ever abandon, his bride. Those who encourage us to slight her will come under his judgment on the last day. Indeed, we pray for Harold Camping and plead with him to return to Scripture's true doctrine of Christ's church." (Pg. 48)
Other critiques of Camping are 'Shockwave 2000!', 'The Harold Camping 1994 Debacle' and 'Dangerous Airwaves: Harold Camping Refuted and Christ's Church Defended.'
Read
July 23, 2011Addresses mainly the topic of why Christians ought to be in church; I wished that this book would have addressed some of the larger problem of Harold Camping's theology. To write a book correcting Harold Camping concerning the need for going to church while not refuting his eschatology is like picking on a gnat while not seeing the guy's cancer. In fact, it's Harold Camping's eschatology that makes him reject the church today (and why the Reformed Church he was in rejected him)! However, this is a good booklet on the importance of not leaving the local church.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews